Vegan Shitake Mushroom Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, & Avocado Sandwich Recipe
Success! I have finally managed a sandwich that Sunnie is excited about and asks for! I’m not a huge sandwich person, but I do have moments where nothing else will do. I’ve had a tougher time converting Sunnie to the simple joys of sandwiches. Short of putting together a kimchi and bap (rice) sandwich (hmm, might have to think about that ;P), she’d always been rather lukewarm on sandwiches. However, I think I finally got it right with this one – the classic BLT plus avocado. For some reason, BLT’s must appeal to the Asian palette as they have always been my mom’s favorite sandwich as well. This recipe is very easy and really hits the spot. We’ve been eating it all fall!
Vegan Shitake Mushroom Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato & Avocado Sandwich
Serves 2
Ingredients
1/2 Avocado, sliced
1-2 cups of dried, sliced shitake mushrooms, we usually use 1 heaping cup
lettuce, we use romaine
1 roma tomato, or 1/2 regular tomato, sliced
1/2 – 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 slices of vegan sandwich bread
salt & pepper to taste (I use a pinch of salt and about 1/2 tsp of black pepper)
Vegan mayonnaise (we use Vegannaise) to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 35o degrees.
- Soak dried shitake mushrooms in warm water for 30 minutes (you can also use fresh, just bake approximately twice as long).
- Using your hands, squeeze the water out of the soaked mushrooms.
- In a bowl, drizzle olive oil over the mushrooms, add salt and pepper to taste, and mix thoroughly to coat.
- Spread mushrooms out on a baking sheet and bake for 20-35 minutes,checking occasionally, until crispy.
- If you are using regular tomatoes, remove seeds by slicing tomato in half horizontally and using your finger to push out seed pockets. Slice tomato and avocado (cut in half vertically, twist to separate, and then slice inside the shell, using a spoon or knife to remove slices).
- Toast your bread, spread mayo on, and assemble!
These sandwiches go great with a side of vegan mac and cheese, or a bowl of soup for a fantastic lunch & the recipe is easily doubled.
Soak the dried shitake mushrooms in warm or hot water for at least half an hour to soften them. We like to used dried, sliced shitake mushrooms because of their convenience (we always have a bag in the pantry for making japchae). Depending on how much “bacon” you like on your sandwich, you can go with 1-2 cups of dried mushrooms. Keep in mind that they will shrink down when roasting. I usually go with 1 heaping cup; but you can always munch on any that are leftover if you make more -yum! You could also used dried whole mushrooms and just slice them after soaking or use fresh – you’ll just have to bake longer. Make sure the mushrooms are not still tough and soak longer if necessary.
Make sure to squeeze the water out of the rehydrated mushrooms really well, and then mix with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Spread the mushrooms out on a baking sheet at bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about half an hour, until crispy, being sure to check on them every couple of minutes after about 20 minutes.
Keep in mind that you want the “bacon” to be crispy. They should be cooked long enough to crunch when you bite into them.
We like to use roma tomatoes, but regular tomatoes work just fine too if you remove the seeds. We also like romaine lettuce because it is so crisp, but any lettuce will do. Slicing your avocado vertically in the shell is an easy way to get nice slices that you can remove with a knife or spoon.
Assemble everything on your toasted, vegan bread and you’re ready to go!
Any vegan mayonnaise will do, but our favorite is definite original vegannaise.
Mmmm.
I think you’ll love the shitake mushroom bacon. So convenient and so yummy! Give it a try!
It’s Psy’s world, and the rest of us are just livin’ in it!: Best Gangnam Style Parodies
As I’m sure you’re all aware, in the weeks since I first blogged about Psy’s Gangnam Style blowing up, it has continued to grow in popularity (as evidenced by the above picture of Psy dancing with Britney and one of our favorite vegans, Ellen Degeneres). It’s really pretty crazy. I’ve watched NFL players doing the Gangnam Style dance after scoring touch downs. It’s been played coming back from commercial breaks during the football games. I’ve heard it on the radio. In Indiana. Korean being sung on regular Indiana radio stations – that’s just bizarre. As I was telling my father-in-law, you just don’t hear foreign-language music being played on mainstream US radio. My mom watches Dancing with the Stars, and they featured Gangnam Style as a dance on there. Even my friend’s young son said he knew the song because they were dancing to it in gym class at school. It’s everywhere, and Psy is everywhere, appearing in Korea and the US every week and appearing with celebrity after celebrity. I’m sure the man is exhausted, but with the song reaching number 2 on the Billboard charts, he’s taking full advantage of his surprising opportunity. And, he’s never too tired to bring it when he performs. Just check out this crazy scene of his performance for 80,000 fans at Seoul’s city hall!
But with Gangnam Style gaining its popularity through the viral music video, it’s of no surprise that it has also spawned a ton of viral parodies that are also a blast. I’ve watched so many, from the University of Oregon duck, to US merchant marine cadets, to dancing knights from the video game, Skyrim,. Even the 7’2″ center of my Indianapolis Pacers, Roy Hibbert, did a small Gangnam Style flash mob with some of his fans in Indy’s Circle Center Mall! However, while many are good, I have some definite favorites. So with no further ado, here are the top 3 Gangnam Style parodies!
#3. 8-bit Gangnam Style
Since I grew up playing 8-bit video games, I have to give props to the excellent reproduction of Gangnam Style!
#2. Hitler Gangnam Style
This is a classic, as this clip of a movie about Hitler has been endlessly used on the Internet to complain about movies, sporting event outcomes, and everything else. I thought it was brilliant and hilarious how they mixed this to have him singing to Gangnam Style!
and the #1 Gangnam Style parody is, what else? Vegan Gangnam Style!!!!!
I just love the lyrics to this – totally hilarious!
I hope you enjoyed these Gangnam Style parodies. What are your favorites?
Vegan Nokdu-jon Korean Mung Bean Pancakes Recipe!
Bill and I watched the Kimchi Chronicles on Hulu, a documentary series about Korean cuisine, and Marja and Jean-George were just delightful to watch. Their love for food and fun really makes you want to cook! Bill and I really enjoyed the Bean Chronicle episode, mainly because, they featured a lot of vegan friendly recipes. In that episode, Jean-George teases Marja about making Korean Mung Bean Pancakes every week ever since she learned to cook them, and Marja admits how much she loves them. So we were inspired to make some for ourselves. We used to make them from mix that we get from the Korean grocery store, but really, it is so much better if you make it from scratch, and it is so easy! Here you go!
Vegan Korean Mung Bean Pancakes Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup split mung beans
1/6 cup rice
1 cup sliced kimchi and sliced veggies (traditionally fern bracken or mung bean sprouts, but any veggies will do)
1/2 cup kimchi juice
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper
1 tsp of gochugaru red pepper powder
1/4 cup of sesame oil
veggie oil
Directions:
1. Soak the mung beans and rice overnight or for 4-5 hours. Drain and rinse.
2. Add the soaked mung beans and rice along with the kimchi juice, salt, black pepper, gochugaru and sesame oil in a food processor and process it so it becomes a creamy texture.
3. Put the batter into a bowl and add the sliced kimchi and veggies. Mix well.
4. Heat the pan to medium high heat and add oil.
5. Once the oil is hot, make small rounds of pancakes and cook until brown, flipping once to brown both sides. They are better when it’s slightly crispy!
6. Enjoy!! 
Sauce ingredients (optional):
1 Tbs soy sauce
Pinch of Korean pepper powder
Pinch of sesame seeds
Drizzle of apple cider vinegar
Sliced green onions
Soak the mung beans and rice overnight or for 4-5 hours minimum. Drain and rinse.
Add 1 tsp of gochugaru (or more or less if you prefer) to the mung beans.
Process the mung beans until creamy or more or less depending on if you would like a smoother or more textured pancake.
Add kimchi and/or vegetables. You can use mung bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, be creative!
Add dollops of batter to heated pan and oil (you can also make one large pancake if you prefer).
Flip the pancake when one side is browned and brown the other side. They are better when slightly crispy!
You can serve them with a dipping sauce if you would like. Add a little soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and gochugaru and mix well (you can also add diced scallions of you’d like).
Enjoy! These are addictive!
WWATD?!: Answer Me 1997
Usually, I try to get my WWATD?! posts in while we’re still watching a series and before it ends, but we wrapped up Answer Me 1997 weeks ago. Still, by waiting until the end (ok, I’ve been really busy…), I get to give a wholehearted instead of a wait-and-see recommendation for this drama.
I picked out this drama to watch because I thought it would likely be a lot of fun for Sunnie and her memories of high school. It follows six Busan high school friends, starting with their high school reunion now and flashing back to their senior year in 1997. While it was a couple of years off from Sunnie’s senior year in high school, it was close, so I thought it would have likely touch on a lot of fond memories for her, and it certainly did. She was able to give me a lot of insights into some inside jokes (the series is full of them) that wink at big events from that time.
The series is very focused initially on Sung Shi Won, played by A Pink’s Jung Eun Ji, and her complete obsession with the Kpop boy group, H.O.T.. A Busan-girl herself, Eun Ji is a a newcomer to dramas and doesn’t provide a huge range in her acting, but this small range actually works very well with Sung Shi Won’s character. Shi Won is first and foremost a super fan. She gets horrible grades and skips school to hear H.O.T., and particularly Tony Ahn (who makes an appearance as himself), on the radio, to watch them on TV, and to travel to see them. She goes farther and farther in her obsession with Tony, even stalking him at times. Honestly, while this was a bit amusing, it was totally another world for Sunnie and me, as neither of us have let our obsessions run quite so extreme. Shi Won is blunt, no nonsense, and not averse to kicking a boy in the shins or getting in a fist fight with the fan of another Kpop boy group. Her sly grin and simplicity are endearing, and like I said, her limited emotional range is a big part of her character.
The other lead is Yoon Yoon Jae, played by Seo In Guk (winner of the singing competition Superstar K). Yoon Jae has lost both of his parents and is now raised by his older brother, Yoon Tae Woong, played by Song Jong Ho who we last saw as a villain in The Princess’ Man. Tae Woong is good at everything and so they use him, in Forest Gump fashion, to wink at all sorts of Korean history, from the creation of the super popular social networking platform Cyworld, to the current presidential race. Yoon Jae is one of the best students and athletes in the high school. Shi Won’s parents, who were best friends with his parents, have helped look after Yoon Jae and his brother for years. So while Yoon Jae has a crush on Shi Won, she views him as a brother. Yoon Jae is known for his sometimes being cold and almost heartless in his focus. The drama sets up a love triangle very early and is hilarious in dangling the carrot of finding out how it ends throughout the series. In the modern scenes, you find out that Shi Won is pregnant, and they tease you with not knowing whether her husband is Yoon Jae, or his brother Tae Woong. Episode after episode sets up ridiculous shots where someone is talking about her husband and a noise in the bar covers up his name, or some such nonsense. It’s a lot of fun how the series is so blatant and mocking about their devices.
We get another couple when a new student from Seoul arrives, Do Hak Chan, played by Eun Ji Won. Hak Chan is liked by the girls for being cool and by the boys for his large stash of porn. He is an expert at splicing together sex scenes from various VHS movies and passing them around to his fellow students. This is another example of the brashness of the series, as they have a hilarious scene of him waiting with anticipation as line by line a nude picture is downloaded over his dial-up modem connection. Despite his porn obsession, Hak Chan is hopeless with girls and freezes up anytime one of them touches him. Shi Won’s best friend, Mo Yoo Jung, played by Shin So Yool, takes a quick liking to him. Yoo Jung is known as being rather fickle with her affections, and big drama occurs early in the series when she takes a secret liking to H.O.T.’s biggest adversaries, the boy group Sechskies, and in particular, to Eun Ji Won. Yes, that Eun Ji Won, so the series has Eun Ji Won playing a boy who dates a girl obsessed with Eun Ji Won, and they have a lot of repeated jokes about this dynamic. Yoo Jung is funny and sweet and hopelessly bosses Hak Chan around. Hak Chan’s deadpan face and expressions are spot-on. Really, the entire cast does a great job with their characters.
The drama as a whole is really just such a joy to watch. It’s fluffy fun and one of the easiest dramas to watch in years. Let’s face it, the lives of high school kids are often filled with drama, that is by and large ridiculous, and this is a great walk through a history that today’s 30-somethings can look at fondly. Before wrapping up, I wanted to touch on a few more characters and actors who help make the show. Kang Joon Hee, played by INFINITE’s Hoya, is perhaps the first gay character in a Kdrama that I’ve seen who’s been given a completely straight (no pun intended) deal of the cards. What I mean, is typically, these dramas shy away from homosexuality, or if they have it, they cover it up with gender-bending, or hijinks, like one character pretending to be gay in order to be able to scope out a house, as in Personal Taste (although, we had a wonderful, honest portrayal of a gay man in that show, but it was a small character). Here, we have a main character in the show, Joon Hee, who is in love with his best friend, Yoon Jae. Maybe they felt it would be less controversial because of the boys’ ages and that people might see it as a crush, but for whatever reason, the writers give a very straightforward, unfiltered portrayal of Joon Hee’s love of his friend, and how he ultimately knows it can’t be fulfilled, but nonetheless, he can’t let go of it. Kudos to the writers, the director, and the actor, Hoya, who does a fine job with a very likeable character that you can’t help but feel empathy for.
Finally, I also wanted to highlight Shi Won’s dad, Sung Dong Il. We’ve previously watched him be completely goofy in a number of shows, such as Lovers in Paris and My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, but he was a riot here. His rage at Shi Won’s fan obsession and their endless fighting is funny, and his tender portrayal of the sorrows of his life make the show more than just farce. The only thing that irked me about this show at all, was the overuse of a bleating goat as a laugh track. Laugh tracks bug me as if something is funny, you shouldn’t need a cue to tell you that it’s supposed to be funny. Answer Me 1997 is funny and the constant bleating at every funny part was only a distraction. I highly recommend this drama. We raced through it, and it was just a joy to watch!
Vegan Bulgogi Style Mushrooms Recipe!
Bill and I love bulgogi tempeh, bulgogi seitan and bulgogi soy curls. But these recipes do need a bit of planning, and sometimes I am just too swamped with work or other fun things to plan ahead for a meal. Often times, that’s when I am just really craving some bulgogi flavor! So during the years of being a Korean vegan, I have invented a quick bulgogi mushroom recipe that can be prepared in a couple of minutes. I’ve never seen anyone do it this way, but I really think it is the easiest way to satisfy the bulgogi flavor cravings. I think the enoki mushrooms with the bulgogi flavor is just spot on and so yummy. I often put it over rice like bulgogi- dupbap (over rice dish), or I eat it with some lettuce and gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) or ssamjang (wrap paste) like any bulgogi style dish. Having it as a part of a larger banchan spread works really well too. Really quick and easy and soooo yummy! 
Vegan Bulgogi Style Mushrooms Recipe
Ingredients:
about 4 packs of Enoki mushrooms (you don’t have to only use enoki mushrooms, but it’s important to have them in there as they form the main flavor for the dish)
veggie oil
10 dashes of onion powder (or to taste)
10 dashes of garlic powder (or to taste)
salt to taste
15 dashes of black pepper (or to taste)
1 Tbs of soy sauce (or to taste)
1 Tbs of sesame oil (optional)
1/2 Tbs of sugar
Directions:
1. Wash the enoki mushrooms and cut off the ends. Tear the mushrooms into bite sizes.
2. Heat the pan to medium high heat and add the veggie oil. Add the enoki mushrooms.
3. Add the onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil if you decide to use it. Add more or less to your liking.
4. Cook until enoki mushrooms are cooked and wilted. You’ll see some water coming out of the mushrooms (so yummy, we love putting it over our rice).
5. Enjoy! It’s such an easy way to enjoy the traditional Korean bulgogi flavor. Really quick and easy and soooo yummy.
You don’t have to only use enoki mushrooms, but it’s important to have them in there as they form the main flavor for the dish.
Add all the seasonings.
As you cook, the mushrooms will soften…
and produce a fantastic bulgogi broth.
Serve over rice, as banchan, or as a ssam (wrap)! So easy and delicious!
Why Vegan? – Philip Wollen’s inspiring defense of animals
I previously shared this on Twitter and Facebook, but I thought it was deserving of its own post. Philip Wollen is a former vice-president of Citibank who has now gone on to be an amazing philanthropist. After visiting a slaughterhouse, he has become an amazing animal activist. In the video below, he speaks as part of a debate regarding whether or not meat should be taken off of the menu and makes the most passionate and inspiring argument for veganism I’ve heard.
That was the first time I’ve seen him speak, and Sunnie and I were just blown away. Evidently, he prefers to largely remain in the background but felt the debate was too important to not participate in. The Thinking Vegan has a nice interview with Philip Wollen that gives more background on him and some of his current activities with the Kindness Trust. He also mentions in the debate Earthlings, a movie he supported and probably the most well known movie promoting an end to using animals for food. You can watch the movie using the above link.
Sunnie and I did view the full debate so that we could listen to both sides of the argument. One thing is that no one in the debate is defending the current factory farming system (probably because it is indefensible), so those defending the use of meat are instead arguing about semantics in the debate or arguing that it is possible to have sustainable and humanely farmed meat. The anti-meat panel included Peter Singer, philosopher and author of the famous book Animal Liberation, a cornerstone of the animal rights literature. It also included a food critic who only tried to make the point that it is possible to have vegetarian food that tastes good – not particularly revelatory or insightful. The pro-meat panel included a pork farmer, a chef who’s father was a lapsed vegetarian, and a guy arguing that sustainability requires animal agriculture. Honestly, I didn’t find any of the other speakers very effective, whether they were for or against meat, but there were some excellent comments from the audience, which are definitely worth watching. You can view the full debate below:
Cheers to Philip Wollen for his inspirational defense of animals! If you haven’t gone vegan yet, and are interested in starting down the path, don’t hesitate to post any questions you have below and consider checking out tryveg.com for tips on getting started!
“Every time I think about how that drama ended, I feel like I have to throw up!”
After recommending two new dramas (A Gentleman’s Dignity and Big!) in my last WWATD?! post – A Tale of Two Dramas, I felt compelled to give an update.
In that post, I was a bit harsher on Big! for its uneven pacing and overly simple plot while I was concerned that A Gentleman’s Dignity might be heading down the road of cliche, lame, and unnecessary plot devices to drum up artificial tension. Ultimately, I recommended both dramas. Well since posting that, Big! has wrapped, while we got several more episodes of A Gentleman’s Dignity before a break for the Olympics. The final two episodes will air next week.
Thankfully, A Gentleman’s Dignity did not head down that road of having the character do stupid things out of honor or guilt for an extended period of time. Or rather, it did, but he acknowledged he was being stupid, and the drama did not dwell on it. In other words, at best it worked and at worst it never felt like the drama was treading water. I’m now eagerly awaiting the conclusion of the drama, and it’s shaping up to be a favorite of mine. I’ve really been enjoying it!
Big!, on the other hand, would win a gold medal if treading water was an Olympic event. It dragged itself towards the finish line. We dutifully plodded along driven by nothing more than to know how it ended. After multiple episodes throughout the drama where nothing really happened, and an entire major character (Suzy’s Jang Ma-ri) who really has nothing to do and is kind of pointless, we were just hanging on to find out how the whole body switch and love triangle turned out. Well, after all of that waiting, the final episode was a disaster. If this was gymnastics, Big! fell on its butt on the dismount. After episodes of nothing happening, showing side plots of minor characters that are pointless and contrived, nothing happens in the final episode! Nothing really gets resolved! It was absolutely amazing and made no sense whatsoever. It completely contradicted what the characters were doing and saying leading up to the final episode! Gil Da-Ran says that she wants the wedding ring she lost in order to make the final decision with bravery and class. So after basically wrapping up her decision earlier than the final episode, all we have to hold on for in that episode is to see how the two love interests, Yoon Jae and Gyung Joon, handle her decision, and if they both even live after returning to their bodies. But we’re never given anything. Seriously, I complained about how another Hong Sisters drama, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, ended, but this was on an entirely different level. This was an epic face-plant.
So, yeah. Not recommending Big! anymore. If you want to see a herculean effort by two stars trying to pull a drama up, you might watch say the first 5-6 episodes, but once it starts to drag, I’m telling you, abandon ship! Iceberg, straight ahead!
Can’t wait for A Gentleman’s Dignity to come back on! Only two episodes left!
